The Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria (CSPC) has now completed the month long Social Finance research study. The information provided has been invaluable to understanding the sector, so thank you to those who took the time to participate. We are excited to announce that we had a total of 15 subjects participate in the study from the private, public, and financial sectors who offered a wealth of valuable insight into the social finance sector on Vancouver Island. We are now currently analyzing and organizing the data, but recurring themes have already been discovered based on the analysis thus far. One quote in particular captures the current state of social finance on Vancouver Island, ““There is a desire for social finance on the Island because everyone can see the social benefits to be gained, but we need to come together to drive the initiative.”

Other key themes include:
• Lack of resources/tools for those interested in social finance to educate and prepare themselves
• Need strong projects to focus on in the near future to expand social financing such as housing projects
• No easily accessible opportunities for investors to support local initiatives
• A lack of government support to incentivize social financing

These are but a few of the themes discovered in the analysis so far, with other important factors affecting social finance on Vancouver Island. Overall there is a demand by investors and aspiration by organizations to increase upon social financing because they see the potential viability for this model and the resulting social benefits it can create. A detailed report discussing all these factors will be released later this month, so stay connected for more information.